Secrecy and trust

Re Mattingley revisited

Re Mattingley is a relatively recent decision of the High Court concerning an alleged secret trust.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Trusts, Legal Practice

Beneficiaries assessment of costs under the Solicitors Act

Beneficiaries are often unhappy about the extent to which an estate or trust fund has been eroded by legal costs.

Briefing, Taxation, Wills and Estates, Real Estate, Taxation and Valuation, Trusts, From the Courts

Challenging the validity of a will

From time to time, a disappointed beneficiary may challenge the validity of a will, by alleging that the testator lacks capacity to make a will, that the testator did not know or approve the contents of the disputed will, or even perhaps that the will was forged.

Wills and Estates, Family Issues

Untamed judicial discretion

The Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 introduced pivotal substantive reforms to English land law, in particular ridding it of the outmoded concept of the trust for sale and replacing it with the trust of land.

Briefing, Wills and Estates, Real Estate, Taxation and Valuation, Legal Practice

Extraordinary facts requiring extraordinary proof?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a disappointed beneficiary of a deceased’s estate will assume that chicanery has been committed in the testamentary process.

Briefing, From the Courts

Relief from forfeiture

In a judgment delivered on 10 October 2023, the High Court granted relief from the operation of the forfeiture rule in the case of Withers Trust Corporation Ltd v The Estate of Hannah Goodman [2023] EWHC 2780 (Ch).

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity

Litigation costs of personal representatives and trustees: An update

Two recent authorities have considered the application of general costs rules to contentious probate and administration proceedings and the ability of personal representatives to rely on their indemnity for properly incurred legal costs from the estate.

Wills and Estates, Trusts

Denaxe Ltd v Cooper

Practitioners experienced in advising trustees as to the exercise of their powers will be very familiar with the court’s power to approve trustee decisions. The jurisdiction, which is an extremely convenient one, allows trustees to ask the court for a blessing of momentous decisions affecting the trust. The great benefit of the procedure for the trustees has generally been understood to be that, if their decision is approved, they are immune from a subsequent claim for breach of duty by a disgruntled beneficiary for carrying out whatever step the court has sanctioned. In Denaxe Ltd v Cooper and Another [2023] EWCA Civ 752, however, the Court of Appeal has put the cat among the pigeons. There, receivers by way of equitable execution (who have a similar right to ask the court for directions) were granted approval of a decision to sell certain assets of a company. After the receivership was later discharged, the company sued the receivers for negligently selling the assets at an undervalue and the Court of Appeal was required to consider the extent to which the approval order gave immunity to the receivers from the claim. This required the court to consider the true legal basis of the immunity which court approval confers. Although the upshot was that the receivers were, on the facts of the case, protected, the court’s reasoning makes clear that approval is not a magic bullet against all future challenges. As Asplin LJ said at the end of her judgment:

Trusts, From the Courts

“Discretion” and the Insolvency Act 1986

Two recent decisions, the Court of Appeal in Patley Wood Farm LLP v Kicks [2023] EWCA Civ 901, and the Supreme Court in Brake v Chedington Court Estate Ltd [2023] UKSC 29, have provided welcome support for trustees in bankruptcy facing claims under section 303 of the Insolvency Act 1986.

Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management

National Fund in the Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal recently handed down judgment in Zedra Fiduciary Services (UK) Ltd v Attorney General [2023] EWCA Civ 1332.

Taxation, From the Courts

CGT on divorce and separation

The Capital Gains Tax treatment of disposals between separating and divorcing spouses or civil partners is a rare example of a recent tax reform which has worked swiftly, sensibly and to the advantage of taxpayers.

Taxation, CGT

Second time around

The dispute over the estate of Evan Hughes first went to trial in 2021, was partially reversed on appeal in 2022 and was eventually re-tried – with a diametrically opposed result to the result of the first trial – in 2023. The judgment of HHJ Keyser KC in Hughes v Pritchard [2023] EWHC 1382 (Ch) represents a useful example of the potential pitfalls of proprietary estoppel claims and the uncertainty inherent in this area of litigation, even after the Supreme Court’s recent judgment in Guest v Guest [2022] UKSC 27.

Wills and Estates, From the Courts

Murphy in the Court of Appeal

Generally, the trustees of discretionary trusts are liable to pay Income Tax on trust income. If a distribution is made from a UK resident trust to a beneficiary, then a credit may be applied for the tax already paid by the trustees pursuant to sections 493–498 of the Income Tax Act 2007 in order to avoid double taxation of the income both when received by the trustee and when distributed to the beneficiary.

Trusts, From the Courts

Vesting orders in respect of property owned by dissolved foreign companies

It is fairly common for an owner of a flat to own their particular residence outright on a long lease, and also to own a share in the freehold as a shareholder of a separate management company.

Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements

Assessment of evidence in forged will cases

Dean Brunt died tragically on 8 December 2007 at the age of 35, having stepped out onto a track in front of a train. After his death, his mother Marlene obtained letters of administration and Dean’s estate was distributed to her under the intestacy rules.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Real Estate